


Spring Au

by katrinawritesthings



Series: Spring au [1]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Aromantic, Bisexual, Brotp, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pansexual, Polyamory, taemplants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 10:26:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 18,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10660644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: 25 Day Spring Challenge with ((less whitewashed))sherlock jongblack danger taemandondrewand someImportant arttumblr





	1. Shameless Flirting (Flower Crowns)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taem is never dropping the aesthetic  
> 

****“You know the flower crown thing was over last year.”

“Do I look like I care?” Taemin asks, not looking up from his work. “Does this look like a face that cares?” He takes one second to point at his face, effortlessly schooled into absolute indifference, before going back to the way his fingers are weaving thin stems together. He plucks another deep purple azalea from the vase at his side and adds it to his wreath. Jonghyun can’t even talk, not with the crown of pink roses sat upon his brown hair. He shifts to get more comfortable on his stool, lounging back against the display of gum and assorted seed packets.

“It looks like a face that wants to suck my dick later,” Jonghyun says, and Taemin doesn’t even have to look up to see his shit-eating grin.

“Shut up,” he mumbles, kicking his foot out lightly. He manages to scrape by Jonghyun’s calf and smirks. “But actually yeah, maybe,” he adds. Jonghyun’s wearing those pants today, the ones that frame his dick just so they draw Taemin’s eyes to it every time he glances anywhere below his waist. Taemin thinks he wore them on purpose, not that that matters in regards to whether or not he’s gonna suck his dick later. “Just as long as you don’t get too cocky about it,” he says. Jonghyun knows how he hates to feel like he’s _expected_ to do things. Jonghyun chuckles softly over the register.

“Only if you--hey--” He reaches out and taps Taemin’s wrist, tugs on it insistently. Taemin looks up, annoyed; Jonghyun made him mess up the finishing loops of his flower crown.

“What? he asks, looking around the little flower shop. Within a second he finds out exactly what--and he scrambles to stand up straight, link his arm with Jonghyun’s and flick his bangs out of his eyes. He’s pretty and perfect just in time to match Jonghyun’s flirty little smile up at their favorite customer.

“Hi, Jinki,” they chorus sweetly. Jinki grins back, just as smooth and suave as they are coy and flirty, and rests one tattooed forearm on their front desk.

“Hey cuties,” he says, and fuck. Taemin’s one weakness. He loves “Cutie.” It doesn’t help that Jinki is wearing just a black tank, pulled so casually on that it’s half falling off of his shoulders and riding up at the hem, exposing the full artwork of flowers and vines on his arm and the little teases of green coming up from the hem of his shorts. Fuck, he’s hot. Taemin lets pink rise in his cheeks as he bites his lip against a smile, Jonghyun giggling cutely next to him.

“You’re looking very nice today, Jinki,” Jonghyun smiles. Taemin watches as he reaches out to draw one finger over the back of Jinki’s hand, over the inked flowers that cover his skin. A huge slut for the tattoos, as usual, but it’s not like Taemin is any different. He just has more restraint.

“Hey, thanks,” Jinki grins. “You too, with your pretty pretty flowers,” he adds, reaching up to touch lightly on the crown of roses in his hair. Jonghyun flushes, his arm squeezing Taemin’s gently.

“Taemin made it for me,” he says, and Taemin smiles even more when Jinki turns his gaze over to him with an impressed little hum.

“Did you, now?” he asks. “It’s very well done, Taemin. Good job.” Oh, oh gosh. This is too much. He’s so fucking attractive, with his lips and his eyebrow piercings and his _everything._ “Is this one for you?” Jinki asks, touching the azalea flower crown Taemin was working on before he came in to grace them with his presence. Taemin blinks. He’d forgotten all about it. It’s taking him longer than usual to get over the daze that Jinki puts him in at first today.

“Oh, um,” he says. He scrambles to quickly finish his ties and secure the seam, then picks it up and holds it out. “Actually,” he says, “you can have it.” He had made it for himself, originally, but deep purple doesn’t really look good with his black hair anyway. He’ll make himself a new one later. Jinki makes a little noise of surprise, of thanks--a gorgeous noise, really--and takes it gently from Taemin’s hands. He lets their fingers brush as he takes it and Taemin feels blessed.

Jonghyun makes an adoring little noise when Jinki sets the crown atop his wavy brown hair with a smile. Taemin doesn’t make a noise, but he does melt completely on the inside, seeing Jinki wearing his creation with such a pleased smile. He caused that smile.

“It looks great on you,” he hums, reaching up both to adjust it and to fix Jinki’s soft hair around it. Jinki lets him do it and gives him his killer eyesmile.

The rest of his visit goes as normal; Jinki compliments them, smiles at their flirting, buys a little bouquet of flowers and leaves for his tattoo parlor next door. Taemin lets Jonghyun take the money from him this time because he already got to touch Jinki’s hands when he gave him the flower crown. As they watch Jinki stroll out of their little shop, flowers both in his hand and on top of his head, Taemin knows that they’re both thinking the same thought.

“I would ride his dick into the sunset,” Jonghyun mumbles. Taemin takes a few moment to respond because he’s staring at the way Jinki’s jeans frame his ass.

“Same,” he replies eventually. They’re both so fucking weak for this suave, tattooed, gorgeous being of a man. He doesn’t even know what to do with himself now that he’s gone. He feels Jonghyun’s thumb rubbing absentmindedly against his wrist and looks down in a daze. “I guess I’ll settle for sucking your dick later,” he mumbles, lifting his hand to cover Jonghyun’s. Jonghyun hums, only half listening.

“Sure.”


	2. Equal Work (Gardening)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taems working hard he swears

****Their blue pansies are looking especially pretty this morning, Taemin thinks as he fluffs gently through their leaves to check for bugs and weeds. He plucks out a single new sprout and pulls himself out of the window to drop it onto the napkin he has on their kitchen table. Grabbing his watering can now instead, he sprinkles the flowers generously. They look happier almost immediately. He can tell. He smiles as he gives them little pets, gentle little pats on their leaves, and then grabs his stuff to move over to the next windowsill plant box in the kitchen.

He hauls himself up to sit on the counter next to their little cactus friend. When he fumbles with the latch and swings the window open, he’s greeted with a startled noise and Jonghyun’s head popping up from below with a frown.

“Hey, watch it,” he snaps. “You almost cracked my head open.”

“Oh,” Taemin says, and kinda sorta tries not to giggle. He reaches out and ruffles Jonghyun’s hair in apology, then grimaces and brings his hand back in to wipe on his shirt. “Ew,” he says, because Jonghyun is sweaty as fuck. Jonghyun grins a smug little grin like Taemin getting a gross feeling hand is compensation for how he almost bashed his head in earlier.

“Can you get out here and help me out?” he asks, gesturing at their mini meadow behind him with the dirt covered spade in his hand. Like Taemin’s even going to consider it with all of that pollen floating around out there. Even with his meds he’d be stuffy all the way up until next Spring. He hisses, puffs up his lips like he’s _really_ considering it, and then sighs.

“I can’t,” he says wistfully, as if it truly _pains_ him to have to stay inside. “I’m too busy gardening.” He holds up his watering can and fluffs up the white pansies that live under this window for effect. Jonghyun snorts.

“No,” he says. “What _I’m_ doing is gardening. You know, clipping hedges, pulling weeds?”

“I’m pulling weeds too,” Taemin pouts. He plucks out a little clover from the flowerbed and holds it up. “See?” He adds it to his napkin pile and then picks that up and shows it to Jonghyun. “Look at all of these.” There’s like, eight. Jonghyun looks at them with a deadpan expression, then shifts that look to Taemin, then over his shoulder where a considerably larger mound of weeds is sitting in the middle of the pathway, and then back to Taemin. Taemin just gives him his best bright-eyed smile. “Can you take care of these for me?” he asks sweetly, holding his little pile of weeds out of the window. Jonghyun sighs, but grabs them anyway, turning around and chucking them into his own heap.

“I’ve been on my knees in the dirt out here for over an hour, you know,” he says when he turns back around. “Could you at least get me something to drink?” He nods over Taemin’s shoulder at the fridge. Taemin grins. He can do that. He slides to the floor to grab one of Jonghyun’s bottles of vitamin water.

“Funny,” he hums as he hops back into the counter and passes it through the window. “I thought you liked being on your knees.” Jonghyun almost chokes on his water because he tried to swallow too fast to reply. Taemin’s grin turns wider. “Your favorite position, as I recall,” he continues, resting his elbow on the windowsill and propping his chin up in his hand. Jonghyun just humphs, doesn’t even bother with trying to come up with a denial, and mimics Taemin’s voice in a mumble around his next drink.

~

hey look a house

  


i would have more nd better pics but origins site fucked up nd deleted a bunch of games from ppls libraries nd their big solution to the problem was to download someth to uninstall their entire program nd then reinstall it nd then just start from scratch on all of ur games again so its like

okay then fuck u too

but basically

they bought the house rly cheap bc it was just in the middle of a meadow nd was kinda shitty nd its a lil rectangle kitchen in the front nd the back left corner is like the bedroom nd bathroom nd shit nd then the whole right area is just

couches all around the walls nd some bookshelves nd a tv nd big open space with another door on the right wall

plus a lil deck/porch with a picnic table nd a grill in the back uwu

i drew a v lovely rendition of it in ms paint nd im proud of it pls enjoy

  



	3. Refill (Pollen)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka sometimes taem stares death in the face nd groans dramatically

****When he lets himself in through the open side door, Jonghyun is greeted by Taemin groaning in misery even louder than when he left. He rolls his eyes, yanking the screen door shut tight like usual and looking around the room. Taemin has moved from whining over the kitchen table and is now lying almost prostrate on the couch nearest to the hallway, face turned out towards the rest of the room, one arm dangling off the edge and hovering over a box of tissues. Jonghyun isn’t sure if that’s better or worse than before.

“How’s it going, champ?” he grins, obnoxiously happy just to piss Taemin off. It works; Taemin whines even louder and weakly lobs a used tissue at him. It barely makes it a foot across the room.

“I’m dying,” he groans. He pulls a new tissue from the box and holds it over his nose. Jonghyun snorts. That’s a bit of an overexaggeration. He slips forward, kicking the tissue more towards the paper bag Taemin is using as a garbage can.

“I got your allergy meds,” he says, crouching down and pulling them out of the bag he brought back from the grocery store. “And a bag of goldfish.” He takes the snack out as well, wiggling it in front of Taemin’s face with a grin. Taemin can’t stay grumpy at him after this. So what if he’s been laughing at him all morning since he dropped his last allergy pill down the drain. He bought him rainbow goldfish. Taemin glares with his puffy red eyes like he’s offended that Jonghyun knows him so well, takes a breath to say something, and then sneezes.

“Ew,” Jonghyun says mildly, cocking a brow.

“Fuck off,” Taemin mumbles from behind his tissue. He wipes his nose and pulls it away with a grimace, crumpling it up and tossing it in the general area of his trash bag. He misses. He plucks another tissue from the box and then reaches out for the goldfish anyway. “Can you open the pills for me?” he asks as he struggles to pull the goldfish open with his weak fingers. Jonghyun chuckles softly even as he obliges and grabs the little bottle. Straight from telling him to go away to asking for a favor. Incredible.

He gets the bottle open before Taemin manages to peel his own charge open, so he switches their hands easily, and while Taemin struggles to sit up and drink some water to down his pills with, he takes a handful of crackers for himself. He loves not being allergic to jack shit.

“Do you ever just realize that you’re all gross and stuffed up and nasty because the flowers are just fucking, like, all day long?” he asks nonchalantly. “That’s literally all pollen is. Plant cummies.”

“Oh my _god,_ ” Taemin says, after almost choking on his pills. He twists the cap back onto his water bottle and drops it the few inches to the floor. “Get out of here.” He snatches the goldfish from Jonghyun with one hand and a new tissue with the other. Jonghyun grins like a shit and straightens up, shoving his hand into the bag and taking another handful before heading to the other corner of the room where the tv remote is. Taemin continues grumbling over there on the other couch, much to his amusement.

An hour later, after the sniffles and sneezes and groans of misery gradually die out as the meds take effect, Taemin rolls off of his couch and slouches up to Jonghyun’s. He invites himself into Jonghyun’s lap, mumbles a few words of thanks, and steals the remote.

Jonghyun chuckles fondly.


	4. Procrastination (Spring Cleaning)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong shouldve expected this tbh

****Jonghyun wiggles out from behind the left corner couch with nine gum wrappers, three socks, a dried up old condom, one of Taemin’s mediocre romance novels, two dollars and fifteen cents in change, and a liberal coating of dust. He doesn’t know if he’s more disgusted by the dust on him or the general state of filth that’s been under them this whole time. He throws everything into their respective piles (garbage, money, clothes, and other shit) and dusts off his sleeves as he heads back to where he last left the vacuum cleaner. Even though he’s been at this for over two hours--they have so much fucking furniture--there’s a spring in his step as he lugs it over and picks up the hose attachment. This is the last piece of furniture he has to clean behind. He’s almost done and it’s with joy that he kicks the couch a little further away from the wall to give himself more room.

He jams the couch back into the corner with a little more gusto than he probably would have normally, but that’s okay. He shoves Taemin’s book into a bookshelf at random, dumps all of the coins into his pocket, gathers up the trash to throw away, and then bundles up all of the clothes to take to the laundry room where Taemin is. While Jonghyun’s been busying himself with the living room, Taemin has been cleaning up in there, organizing the cabinets and attempting to get rid of that sticker goo that’s been on the front of the dryer for years. It smells strongly of cleaning products just walking up to the door and he hopes that Taemin at least had the sense to open a window or something.

He should be almost done by now, Jonghyun thinks. He heard the buzzer for the last load of laundry in the dryer go off about an hour ago and it’s not like it takes that long to wipe down and organize some shelves. He thinks it’s time for a break for the both of them. There’s only so much cleaning they can do in one sitting. Maybe they’ll go out for something to eat, maybe ask a certain tattooed babe out for ice cream. That’ll be fun. He shoulders his way through the door, glancing behind him to make sure he hasn’t dropped any socks.

“Hey, are you almost done?” he asks. “Wanna go hit on Jink--” He stops first because he doesn’t see Taemin immediately, and then he stays stopped when he finds him. “You fucking piece of shit,” he mutters, frowning down at the piece of shit. Taemin doesn’t even hear him. He _can’t_ hear him because he’s fucking _asleep._

He’s bundled himself up in a lump of laundry on the floor. The dryer door is opened next to him; it’s the fucking load of clothes that Jonghyun heard him taking out of the dryer an hour ago. He’s just been snuggled up in here all cozy and warm the whole time, taking a sweet little nap, while Jonghyun was fishing out old condoms and dusty socks from behind the couches. Jonghyun can’t fucking believe it. They agreed that they were gonna get this bullshit done _today_ , no distractions.

“Hey,” he snaps, throwing his little bundle of dusty clothes at Taemin’s head. Taemin jolts awake with a deep breath, opens his eyes, and then immediately scrunches them closed against the brightness of the room. He makes his sleepy noise and lifts a hand up from the pile of laundry to rub his palm against his eye before he blearily opens it just a crack. He grins lazily when he sees Jonghyun frowning at him with his arms crossed.

“Hey,” he hums. “What’s up?”

“You’re an asshole,” Jonghyun tells him bluntly. Taemin doesn’t even look bothered. “How long were you asleep in here?” he asks, looking around frustratedly. The sink is clean and two out of five shelves are tidied up, it looks like, but the sticker goo on the dryer is only halfway rubbed off. Taemin must have dozed off in the middle of cleaning it. Taemin just smiles down there in his laundry pile and gives Jonghyun a little shrug of his shoulders.

“Dunno,” he mumbles. “You here to help me out?” he asks. He wiggles his eyebrows and tries to wink. All that happens is he closes both of his eyes again and nestles more into his little cocoon. Jonghyun huffs.

“I was _here_ ,” he starts, “to ask if you wanted to go flirt with Jinki and get ice cream. But now I think I’m just gonna go do that by myself.”

“What?” Taemin sits up immediately, pressing his palm into his other eye and sending towels to the floor. “You can’t go see Jinki alone, no,” he whines. “That’s not fair. He’s ours. Jonghyun, please?” He’s pouting, giving Jonghyun his big eyes and wobbly lower lip. Jonghyun feels his resolve crumbling as he looks at that cute fucking face. And Taemin calls him unfair.

He huffs again, more resigned this time. He wasn’t really gonna go without Taemin. And if he thinks about it, he’s not really _that_ mad. All this means is that he gets to lounge around on the nice clean couches and watch tv while Taemin finishes his own work. Ha. He bends down and reaches for Taemin’s hands.

“Come on,” he says. “Put these towels back in the basket and we’ll go get something to eat.” He deserves a break and some food because he actually did what he was supposed to. Taemin doesn’t, but he doesn’t want to go out to eat alone. Taemin gives him a wide, smug grin as he takes Jonghyun’s hands and lets himself be pulled up.

“I’ll buy,” he says, like he’s doing Jonghyun a huge favor instead of trying to make up for slacking off. Jonghyun rolls his eyes, but he also helps Taemin tidy up the laundry and links their arms when they walk out of the front door.


	5. Egg (Egg)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> egg

Jonghyun is greeted by the bright colors of capitalism and commercialism when he pushes their shopping cart through the front doors of the grocery store. He takes a deep breath and lets it out with an excess of pep as Taemin slouches up next to him.

“Happy generic Spring holiday,” he says, nudging his side. Taemin snorts and nudges him back.

“You mean Easter,” he says, tugging the other end of the cart forward, towards the display set up in front of them. Jonghyun follows easily.

“That’s what I said.”

“Egg,” Taemin mumbles, picking up a bag of colorful plastic eggs that’s nestled in with baskets of generic candy and fake grass. Jonghyun shrugs it off when Taemin puts it into their cart. They could be fun to play with, he guesses, and they’re only a dollar. He tugs on Taemin’s wrist to lead him to the bread wall where he usually starts his shopping when Taemin isn’t with him. Taemin hurries a few steps so he can link their arms together as they walk, and Jonghyun smiles. This is kinda nice. He’s forgotten why it was that Taemin stopped going grocery shopping with him.

Jonghyun is debating between two loafs of bread or on four when Taemin wanders away, trailing his hand lightly against Jonghyun’s forearm to let him know. Jonghyun glances at him for a moment to nod before going back to his decisionmaking. The bread is on sale, yeah, but are they really going to eat four loaves before they get stale?

“Egg,” Taemin’s voice says, and Jonghyun looks away from his bread again. He’s got a little container of Easter egg decorated cookies. Oh, good. Jonghyun always forgets to go into the cookie area.

“Are those the ones with the sugar sprinkles?” he asks. Taemin looks at his cookies, hums, and shuffles away again. This time, Jonghyun actually comes to a decision: of course they’re not going to eat four fucking loaves of bread before they get old. He’s putting just two into their cart when Taemin returns with a different box of cookies.

“Egg,” he says again, putting them in next to the bread. Jonghyun smiles, linking their arms together and pushing on towards the cereal aisle. Egg indeed. When they turn down the aisle, Jonghyun doesn’t make it two steps before Taemin stops again with an ugly giggle. He reaches for something on the shelf and drops it into the cart. “Egg,” he says. Jonghyun blinks, then leans over to see what it was.

“Egg shaped… cereal bars,” he says slowly. What the fuck. Who came up with this idea. He shrugs after a moment, though, and keeps on rolling. He gets them cereal bars sometimes, when he notices them. He guesses that what shape they’re in doesn’t really matter. “Come on.” He tugs on Taemin’s sleeve so they can get their cereal.

Ten minutes and half a cart full later, Jonghyun is starting to notice a pattern.

“Egg,” Taemin had said when he put a pack of marshmallow eggs into their cart. “Egg” again when he wandered away again and came back with a bag of egg shaped Reese’s. “Egg,” when he stopped off in the soap aisle to grab a fucking egg shaped bottle of dish soap, and “egg” when he dropped a box of Cadbury Cremes in with their stuff. Jonghyun didn’t really mind that last one--but still, he’s remembering why he wanted Taemin to stop coming shopping with him. It’s coming back to him. Quickly. “Egg,” Taemin says for the ninth time since they entered this store and Jonghyun groans.

“Will you _stop_ with the--” he falters when he sees what’s in Taemin’s hand this time--“eggs,” he grumbles. Taemin laughs a smug little laugh as Jonghyun huffs and snatches the carton of actual eggs out of his hand. “I’m serious,” he frowns. “There’s like, thirty dollars worth of fucking--” He doesn’t even want to say the word again. Luckily--and by that he means not--Taemin supplies it for him.

_“Egg,”_ he whispers, pressing up close to Jonghyun’s side and breathing it into his ear. Jonghyun closes his eyes and sighs deeply. Fuck eggs.


	6. Decorating (Baking)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka cookies idk

There’s something different about the the smells in the air, Jonghyun notices when he jogs up the porch steps. A scent that’s not rose or honeysuckle or snowdrop or redbud or any of the other flowers that are blooming around their home. It’s coming from the open window above their kitchen table, so he makes a side trip to there instead of just walking through the front door. As he leans up against the windowsill and peers inside, he finds the source of the disturbance.

“Aha,” he exclaims, and reaches inside the window to snag the sugar cookie that Taemin is piping frosting onto.

“Hey--rude,” Taemin frowns, picking up a new cookie. Jonghyun just grins around his own and looks at how Taemin’s set himself up on the table. Stacks of differently shaped cookies, messy ziplock bags of icing, sprinkles scattered everywhere. He reaches inside again and pokes a finger into a drop of icing that Taemin must have spilled earlier.

“Why, though?” he asks, licking his finger clean. He doesn’t know of any holidays or birthdays that are coming up anytime soon.

“We’re having a little party down at the studio tomorrow,” Taemin shrugs, tapping orange sprinkles onto a little butterfly cookie. Jonghyun nods in understanding. One of his dancey thingies. He stuffs the rest of his cookie into his mouth and leaves the window to enter in through the front door.

“You made some extra for us, right?” he asks when he gets inside. These taste really good. He thinks there’s a hint of orange or lemon or something in there. Taemin lifts his focus from the cookies and gives him this look, one that says that he can’t believe that Jonghyun would even have to ask. Jonghyun shrugs. Fair point. He grabs himself a drink from the fridge, then slides over to sit opposite Taemin at the table. “These look really nice,” he says, inspecting his cookies as they sit out to dry. There are decorated eggs and four-leaf clovers and flowers and little bunnies. Really cute stuff. Over on the other side of the table, Taemin grins smugly.

“Thanks,” he says. “Wanna help me finish?” He gestures at the container of unfrosted cookies and the bags of colored frosting in the center of the table. Jonghyun snorts.

“You know I’m not good at this,” he says, even as he takes a cookie. He’s probably going to fuck up the first one trying to be fancy and then just make the rest solid colors.

“I can’t take shitty cookies to a party,” Taemin says, giving him another look. This one is more pointed, with a raised eyebrow and a glance between Jonghyun and his cookie. Ah.

“I see,” Jonghyun says. Maybe he’ll try to be fancy for the first ten tries or so.


	7. Another (Earth Day)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taem plants a tree every year

****“You bought another tree?”

Taemin looks up from his shovelling in time to see Jonghyun shutting the back door behind him. Oh, good. Taemin hadn’t even heard him coming back from the mall, but he’s glad that he’s here now. He is not enjoying all of this digging bullshit.

“A dwarf tangerine tree,” he confirms happily when Jonghyun gets closer. It’s just a sapling now, with it’s tiny little branches and cute little leaves. Taemin kind of wants to kiss it, it’s so cute. He may or may not have already given it a little kiss when he brought it home. “Happy Earth Day!” he smiles, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He loves Earth Day. It’s like Arbor Day, except he gets to plant a tree _and_ be extra affectionate around the rest of his plants at the same time. No one gets left out.

“Sure,” Jonghyun says. He rolls his eyes, which Taemin politely ignores like he usually does when Jonghyun is less than enthusiastic about his plant holidays. “Here,” Jonghyun says, handing Taemin a cold smoothie cup from that place a few streets over. Taemin gasps dramatically because. Fuck yes. He loves these things.

“Banana?” he asks, taking the cup from Jonghyun’s hand. He trades it easily for the shovel handle, which Jonghyun just looks at with a cocked brow.

“With strawberry,” he says, nodding. “I thought this tree holiday thing was _your_ thing,” he says. “Why am I expected to do your dirty work for you?” He turns his raised eyebrows to Taemin accusingly. Taemin hums innocently around his smoothie straw with a little smile.

“Because you love me?” he tries sweetly. Jonghyun snorts and shakes his head.

“Not today,” he says. He scoots passed Taemin and jams the shovel into the dirt anyway. “Just a little bit bigger than the bulb, right?” he asks, gesturing towards the wrapped up roots of the sapling Taemin has waiting to be planted.

“Yeah,” Taemin says. He grins because he knows that Jonghyun isn’t complaining because he actually likes digging. Something about it being therapeutic in small doses. Really, he’s doing Jonghyun a favor, letting him do this. “Oh--and Jinki says hi.” He takes another sip of his smoothie as Jonghyun gasps his Jinki gasp, light and breathy and excited.

“You saw him?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder. Taemin hums in confirmation. He went to their shop to buy the tree off of a different cashier at the same time Jinki was in there to buy his daily bouquet. He may or may not have picked that time specifically just so he would run into Jinki, but that’s not the point. It’s not like he flirted with him or anything. Just some small talk and a little appreciation of his tattoos, like usual when Jonghyun’s not around.

“He says Happy Earth Day,” he grins. He can’t see Jonghyun’s face, but he knows that he’s rolling his eyes again. It’s always amused him, how little patience Jonghyun has for the smaller holidays.

“What kind of tree did you say this was again?” Jonghyun asks, picking up a rock from the hole and chucking it over the fence. Oh, yeah, that reminds Taemin. He should be getting the sapling ready. He puts his smoothie in the grass and sits next to it to fiddle with the tie to the canvas around the roots of the tree.

“Dwarf Tangerine,” he says. “We’re gonna have so many tangerines in like, three years.” He can’t wait.

“Gee, I can hardly wait,” Jonghyun mutters. Somehow, Taemin thinks that was less sincere than his own enthusiasm.


	8. Research (Nature Artwork)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jinki is totes a babe

They haven’t even stepped into the front door of Jinki’s little tattoo parlor and Taemin is already feeling emotional about him. He’s just... there, sitting over a client and tattooing a crisp design into their shoulder. He’s so focused, so intent on his work, with his wavy hair pulled back into a little ponytail and--Taemin feels Jonghyun squeeze his bicep and let out a shuddery breath--so much inked skin just out in the open thanks to the loose black tank top he’s wearing. There are the dark flowers that cover his upper right arm, then stem down his forearm and bloom again on his hand, the cute bracelet of flowers around his left wrist, the thorny vines across his collarbones that loop around his neck, and the empty branches splaying over his left shoulderblade that stem and branch out from his nape.

Ugh. He’s so hot. So, so hot. Taemin’s already forgotten what they came in here for. He thinks Jonghyun has too, if the way he continues to just stand there at his side means anything. They're both in a daze. The flowers on Jinki’s bicep shift with his muscle and Taemin isn’t quite sure that he’s remembering to breathe.

“Oh--Jinki,” a voice says to their right, “Your flower boys are here.” Jinki’s flower boys… that’s him, Taemin realizes, him and Jonghyun, and he blinks slowly to see who’s talking about them. It’s Kibum, the other tattoo artist, sitting at the register desk and looking at them over some magazine. Jonghyun lifts his hand half-heartedly in a wave; Taemin manages a little smile. He doesn’t think they’ve ever made a good impression on this dude, what with how they’re always so flustered by Jinki’s general state of being.

“Hmm?”

Case in point--when Taemin looks back at Jinki, he’s paused in his work and is looking at the pair of them with that drop dead fucking _gorgeous_ smile that _definitely_ makes him forget how to breathe. Guh.

“Hey babes,” he says, giving them a wink. “Why don’t you sit your cute butts down for a little bit? I’m almost done here.”

“Okay, Jinki,” Jonghyun coos, smiling sweetly at him before tugging on Taemin’s elbow to sit him on the couch by the front door. His next words are for Taemin only, murmured into his ear with a little giggle. “He’s really cute today.” Taemin finds himself laughing softly too, but at himself. Jonghyun’s all sunshine and rainbows but here Taemin is, trying to suppress a raging hard on. He knew the pair of them would be on separate pages today. As they sit there, arms linked and thighs touching, Taemin tries to absorb Jonghyun’s pep.

It kind of works; after a few minutes, he finds himself relaxing into his usual state of aesthetic attraction instead of flat out thirst. Ahh, yes. Good. He gets his eyes off of the way Jinki’s shoulderblades shift under his skin and ink to instead look around the rest of the parlor, at the cute decor and photos of Jinki and Kibum’s other artwork. Glancing at the desk Kibum is still lounging behind, he sees the bouquet of flowers they sold Jinki not two hours ago sitting pretty in a vase. He nudges Jonghyun’s side and points, smiling against his cheek; Jonghyun giggles and wiggles in that way he does when he’s flattered.

Soon, Jinki finishes up with his client and Taemin watches him again as he pats him on the tattooless shoulder, gives him a little info pamphlet, and talks him through all of the after-inking stuff. He’s so cute when he does his job and shit. When the newly tattooed customer leaves, Jinki then turns his attention to the pair of them again. Taemin perks up just the same as Jonghyun when Jinki grins and jerks his head towards the desk where Kibum is. They get up, still linked at the arm, and head over to lean up against it, Jinki slipping in besides Kibum to do the same. Kibum takes one look between the three of them smiling at each other and rolls his eyes.

“I’m taking my break,” he mutters, closing up his magazine and heading outside. Taemin watches him go with an amused little smile before he turns back to their shared babe.

“To what do I owe this lovely pleasure in my shop?” he’s asking, leaning both arms up on the counter. Taemin glances at Jonghyun to explain. He still hasn’t remembered. Jonghyun’s cheeks are a little bit pink, the kind of pink that he allows them to be when he wants to seem extra cute.

“Well,” he says, “‘You know how I kind of want to get my own tattoo, on my chest.” He circles a finger around over his heart area as Taemin remembers. Oh, yeah. Jinki nods, humming in confirmation. Jonghyun’s told him before about it, and about how he hasn’t done it yet because of his fear of needles. Jonghyun bites his lip coyly and reaches out to trace a finger over Jinki’s hand. “I figured, you know, that I’d come and ask you a few questions, about yours.” He trails his finger up one long stem on Jinki’s arm and Taemin really remembers now. Ahh, yes. The thinly veiled excuse to feel up Jinki’s arms. He can’t believe he forgot the purpose of a mission of this importance. He reaches out for Jinki’s hand himself, picking his wrist up gently to look at his palm and draw little circles on it with his finger.

“And we thought maybe we could sketch out some ideas with you?” he adds. All cutsey flirting aside, Jinki is an amazing artist. The tattoos inked into his skin are of his own design and he comes into their shop to show them new ideas of his all of the time. They always stun Taemin with his skill. The two of them are sure that he could come up with a stellar design based off of their ideas. He traces a little vine that curls around Jinki’s little finger until he reaches the tip. “If you have the time, we mean,” he says, Jonghyun nodding next to him. Jinki smiles again, shifting his hand to lace his fingers with Taemin’s.

“I can always make time for you two honeys,” he says, and Taemin turns slightly to match Jonghyun’s flattered little smile. Quality alone time, just the three of them, to be spent both flirting shamelessly and having serious talks about meaningful symbolism and shit. It’s gonna be great.


	9. Camouflage (Tye-Dye Shirts)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong can't find taem

****The only thing that greets Jonghyun when he gets home today is a whole lot of nothing. Empty chairs and empty tables. He hums, curious. Taemin said he was just gonna sit around and do nothing today. He heads to the hallway and peeks into the bedroom, and then into the laundry room, and then the bathroom. All empty. Hmm. They usually let each other know with a note or a text or something before they leave for somewhere while the other is out. Pulling out his phone and heading back to the kitchen to find something to eat, he sends Taemin a quick text:

**To: QPQT  
3:27PM**  
I thought you were staying home today?

Taemin’s reply comes before he even stuffs his phone back into his pocket.

**From: QPQT  
3:27PM**  
i am????

Jonghyun frowns. Well where the fuck is he then?

**To: QPQT  
3:28PM**  
Where are you?

**From: QPQT  
3:28PM**  
uh outside???  did u even look

Jonghyun frowns more. He can _feel_ the snoot coming off of that text. It’s completely unwarranted. Of course he didn’t look outside. It’s the middle of  the day and there’s pollen literally everywhere, especially around their house. Taemin doesn’t even go near the windows with his allergies unless it’s to take care of his flowerbeds. Though--Jonghyun did notice that the ground was wet outside when he left the mall earlier. Maybe Taemin is just taking advantage of the pollen being washed away for the rest of the day to enjoy the flowers in peace.

He goes to peer out of their side window to find Taemin; he finds a whole lot of nothing. Again. No Taemin out on their little bench on the paved walkway through the meadow, no Taemin frolicking through the flowers, no Taemin in their tree swing out front, and no Taemin lounging in their hammock when he walks all the way through the living room to press up against the back windows and look. What the fuck. He shoulders his way outside so he can actually go out and search, splashing the little puddle that always shows up on the second step of the deck as he calls out Taemin’s name.

“Over here,” Taemin calls back. Well, his voice came from their side meadow, but Jonghyun doesn’t know how he could magically be there when he wasn’t less than a minute ago. He wanders over there to check anyway, because it’s entirely possible that he just didn’t look hard enough.

“Over where?” he asks, frowning as he looks out and surveys the explosion of color that the wet flowers have turned their side yard into. He thinks they seem more vivid than usual, and little droplets of water glisten and sparkle in the weak sunlight. It’s really pretty, actually, but--no Taemin. “Are you fucking with me?” he asks loudly.

“Dude, are you kidding? You’re looking right at me.”

“What?” No he’s not. All that’s in front of him is colors. Yellow and pink and blue and green and--and one blob of black that he suddenly notices when Taemin sways in his spot to get his attention. He squints--Taemin just looks like a floating fucking head sitting in the middle of all of the flowers. He notices quickly that Taemin is moving his arms too, waving at him, but he just didn’t notice because of what he’s wearing. Realization dawns on Jonghyun as quickly as disbelief because--”What the fuck,” he says. “Is this the 70’s?” He laughs in spite of his confusion when Taemin rolls his eyes.

“It’s just tie-dye, Jonghyun,” he says, like it’s not a legitimate form of camouflage that he has going on right now. As Jonghyun picks his way through the plants to where Taemin is sitting, he sees that he even has on his green skinnies. He can’t have picked this outfit on accident.

“Where’d you even get a tie-dye hoodie?” he asks when he gets close enough to crouch down in front of him. Taemin shrugs.

“Henry let me borrow it last week,” he says. “I haven’t seen him yet to give it back.”

“...Sure,” Jonghyun says. He’s still just in disbelief at how well the clashing colors of his shirt hid him in plain sight. “I literally could not see you until you moved,” he says. He giggles halfway through his sentence because he’s finally realizing how ridiculous this all is. A fucking camouflaged boyfriend. Taemin giggles too, leaning back against the towel he’s sitting on so his pants don’t get dirty.

“I made pudding, earlier,” he says. “There’s a little bowl left for you in the fridge.” Jonghyun gasps. Pudding. Fuck yes. He loves pudding.

“Thanks,” he says quickly, leaning forward to press a kiss to Taemin’s lips before jumping to his feet and jogging back inside for his pudding.

Once he’s got it, he moves to squint out of the side window to find Taemin again. It should be easy, now that he knows where he is, right?

Wrong. He can’t see jack shit. He texts Taemin again to tell him to wave and is absolutely flabbergasted when Taemin’s hand pops up ten feet to the right of where he was expecting it to. Tie-dye is such bullshit.


	10. Recon (Blossoming Romance)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka kibum comes in to ask them about their hot boss

"Do you think he goes in, like, all at once?”

“Nah, nah, dude, are you kidding? He goes slow as fuck. Nice and smooth.”

“Well, yeah, I guess he’d have to, with that size.”

“It’s not even a size thing, man, it’s just a _him_ thing.”

“Can we like, _talk_ about his size thing though? Because bruh.”

“Bro, I know.”

“Do you think _he_ knows?”

“Trust me, he knows, and he never shuts up about it when he’s drunk.” A third voice enters their conversation and Taemin blinks, turning his gaze from Jonghyun to their new customer. He didn’t even hear the bell chime them in, they were so busy with their Jinki talk. It’s Kibum, the other tattoo artist from next door. “Hey,” he says, waving at the pair of them with a hand that has a smiley face inked onto the palm. Taemin wonders vaguely if the other one has a frowny face.

“Hey,” he says slowly. He glances quickly at Jonghyun; Jonghyun shrugs at him and he looks back to Kibum. “Can we help you?” he asks uncertainly. He doesn’t know why Kibum would be here when Jinki had already dropped by over an hour ago to buy his daily bouquet.

“Don’t look so pleased to see me,” Kibum says, rolling his eyes at their less-than-peppy welcome. Taemin grins a little guiltily and Jonghyun chuckles next to him.

“Really, do you need anything?” he asks, tugging his stool closer to the counter so he can rest his elbows on the surface next to Taemin. “We can make you a pretty bouquet to match your hair, if you want. That’s all our skills are limited to, though.” He shrugs, and Taemin shrugs as well because it’s kind of true. He can already think of three or four flowers that would match Kibum’s hair color of the week but he can’t for the life of him think of anything else the tattoo artist would want from them.

“I just came by  to… ask you something,” Kibum says slowly. “Who was that dude that was in here earlier?”

_That dude_. Very specific, Taemin thinks.

“Which dude?” he asks. They get an assortment of dudes coming in every day. Kibum leans his elbow against their counter and inspects his nails, but Taemin can still tell a shifty attitude when he sees one.

“Uh, tall, dark hair, big eyes… hot as the fucking sun…,” Kibum lists, mumbling that last one. Taemin shares a quick, gossip-craved glance with Jonghyun. Does the snarky tattoo boy from next door have a crush? “I saw him behind the counter with you two earlier, so, you know, I figured you must know him.” Kibum shrugs and turns a gaze that’s almost bored enough to mask his eagerness. Taemin raises his eyebrows because he knows exactly who Kibum is talking about now and it greatly amuses him.

“You mean Minho?” Jonghyun asks, lips tugging up into his cocky smirk. “Our boss?” Their boss that only really shows up every once in a while to make sure that the pair of them haven’t burned the place down. He’d come around earlier that day to check up on them, tell them about his latest adventures in camping, and to stop them before they went into detail about how exactly they know that the shelves in the back are still sturdy. A pretty solid visit, in Taemin’s opinion. He even gave them a little bonus for being cute.

“Your boss,” Kibum repeats. “So, you’re saying, he has money?” Jonghyun snorts extremely unattractively as soon as the words leave Kibum’s mouth. Taemin has a little more class, so he just hides his ugly laughter behind a cough and cocks a brow over the counter.

“And you call _us_ thirsty when we go over there to flirt with Jinki,” he says. The uninked bits of skin he can see underneath the lines on Kibum’s cheekbones go pink as he gasps in offense.

“You--you know what--shut up,” he snaps. “I was just wondering, is all.” He crosses his arms grumpily, but Taemin can see right through him. He grins at Jonghyun and Jonghyun grins back.

“He doesn’t really come around too often,” Jonghyun says, wiggling his arm to link with Taemin’s. He gives Kibum a falsely sympathetic smile that does nothing to hide his own amusement. “But…,” he trails off, nudging Taemin’s side with his elbow to get him to continue. Taemin matches his smile because really, this is more fun than he’s had in a while.

“But, we can call him back right now, if you want,” he offers sweetly. Kibum’s eyes go wide.

“No--god, no, don’t do that,” he hisses. Taemin and Jonghyun share another smirk for a split second before Taemin sighs like it’s truly a shame that Kibum doesn’t want it. And truly, it is, because he’d love to see Kibum become a flustered mess in front of their dingus of a boss.

“Well, you know,” he says. “Minho’s gonna be at that party that we invited you and Jinki to the other day. Just in case you wanted to, maybe, add that to your consideration.” When they’d gone in to flirt with Jinki and invite the pair of them to their place, Kibum had just rolled his eyes and said he’d “think about it.” Taemin thinks, by the way that Kibum flushes even pinker under his tattoos, that he’s actually going to think about it when he heads back next door. He watches him leave, amused and entertained, before Jonghyun squeezes his arm eagerly.

“So, we’re totally telling everyone else that comes to get them together, right?” he asks. Taemin grins. Of course.


	11. Sneak Attack (Spring Weddings)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka sometimes the grey in jongs aro punches him in the face

****"This is nice.” Jonghyun’s bouncing in his seat when Taemin comes back from the back room with a cart full of roses and an order form. “Like, really nice,” Jonghyun continues, gesturing at the flowers in front of him and ones Taemin’s brought back.

“I told you they wanted just the Belindas and not the Belinda’s Dreams,” Taemin says, dropping the order form in front of Jonghyun and sitting down next to him. “You were gonna ruin their wedding.” That’s kind of an overexaggeration; today they’re just putting together a few sample bouquets for the happy couple to choose from later. Still. Jonghyun was wrong and he was right. Jonghyun picks up the paper and squints at it for a second, then shrugs and tosses it back down.

“This is still really nice,” he says, swaying in his seat. “Like, a wedding. Wow. That’s so cute. They’re so in love that they wanna be legally stuck together forever. That’s cute. That’s so fucking cute. Weddings are amazing.” He leans back to pluck a fresh rose to the cart and add it to his bouquet. “How’s that?” he asks, twitching it into a better position. Taemin tilts his head, reaches out, moves it a little bit to the left and adds a second one to the right. “Ah!” Jonghyun says, clapping his hands together. “Perfect!” Taemin snorts.

“Yeah, but we’re still gonna make like nine more,” he sighs. He’s actually kind of looking forward to it, despite how bored he sounds. He likes flower arranging. It’s nice. He’s just kinda tired because he woke up too early. Compared to him, though, Jonghyun is positively ecstatic.

“I wanna make, like, _fifty_ ,” he says. “Guh.” Taemin grins. He doesn’t think the wedding they’re doing this for even needs fifty bouquets.

“You’re cute when you’re excited,” he says, nudging Jonghyun’s side. Jonghyun gasps a flattered little gasp.

“Thanks, ahh,” he giggles. “This whole love thing is really cute. I’m so--ahh.” He leans over and takes Taemin’s chin in his hand, pressing their lips together in a soft, slow, chaste kiss, one that’s more smile than anything. Taemin scrunches up his face.

“Don’t go all ro on me,” he mumbles, letting Jonghyun finish the kiss anyway. Jonghyun makes an offended noise when he pulls back.

“Not every kiss is a ro kiss,” he says snootily.

“ _That_ one was,” Taemin says, raising his eyebrows. He could tell. He can always tell when Jonghyun is getting his ro feels. Jonghyun scoffs, however, and turns his nose up in the air.

“It was not,” he insists. “I’m not feeling ro in the slight--” He stops and turns towards the front door when the little bell chimes in a new customer. Taemin looks too, immediately brightening up because it’s Jinki. Tattooed and sleeveless, as per usual. How lovely. “Oh,” Jonghyun says, and Taemin turns to him because he sounded less than excited. “Oh my god--Taemin, Taemin I’m feeling ro,” he says. He grabs Taemin’s wrist almost painfully and wrenches his eyes away from Jinki. “I’m feeling so fucking ro--” He’s feeling ro and panicking about it. Taemin throws Jinki another quick glance before he gets to the register and looks back at Jonghyun. He knew it.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he says softly. Normally he’d smirk and tell Jonghyun that he told him so, but now’s not the time. Jonghyun’s usually good with his ro feelings--he fucking revels in them as obnoxiously as possible just to bug Taemin--but sometimes, when they spring up on him out of nowhere like this, they make him panic because he can’t take his time to sort them out and ease into them. “Go grab a water bottle from the back or something,” he says, pushing lightly on his arm. If Jinki’s the one he’s feeling ro for right now, he definitely shouldn’t stay here to get sweet talked and complemented by him.

“I’m--okay,” Jonghyun breathes, squeezing Taemin’s wrist once more in thanks. He manages the tiniest, fastest smile at Jinki as he nears the front desk, but is gone before he can even say hi. Taemin watches him jog through the shelves of leaves for a moment before he turns back to Jinki, who was doing the same. He props his chin up in his hand and smiles lazily.

“Hey,” he says. Jinki’s eyes stay on Jonghyun for another moment before sliding down to him.

“Is he okay?” he asks, concerned. Taemin nods, touched that Jinki cares.

“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” he says. “Love’s been in the air all morning and he just wasn’t ready for you to be the grey to his aro so suddenly.”

“Oh,” Jinki says, nodding in understanding. Then he grins. “He’s grey for me?” he asks, eyebrows doing that thing where they rise crookedly. Fuck, he’s attractive. Still, Taemin keeps himself from being flirty because Jonghyun would never forgive him for playing with Jinki without him.

“Sometimes,” he hums. “Me, too. Only once in a while, though. It’s pretty cute when he’s not panicking or being a fucking shit about it.” He shrugs. “Want me to get your flowers?” he asks, gesturing behind him with a thumb. Jinki smiles his regular smile, not the suave and charming one, and nods.

“Yes please,” he says, and fuck, he’s still hot even when he’s not trying to be. “Maybe just a couple of these roses?” he asks, reaching up and playing with one of the ones they were using for their wedding bouquets.

“Sure,” Taemin grins, reaching behind him for one of the bundles. It’s not like they don’t have a bunch to spare. He picks a few of the more quality ones out and wraps them up all nice and pretty, then hands them over to Jinki in exchange for his money and sends him off with a smile. As Jinki leaves, Taemin glances quickly around their little shop for any other customers. It looks like he’s clear, for a little bit at least; he moves their bouquets in progress out of the way and scoots their little bell up to the front of the desk.

Jonghyun is flopped out on the couch in the breakroom when Taemin finds him, sipping his water through a straw stuck in his water bottle and staring listlessly at the ceiling. Taemin grins fondly, slipping over to push Jonghyun further onto the couch to give himself room to sit.

“I told you that was a ro kiss,” he says mildly. Like he thought, Jonghyun’s calmed himself down enough to just give Taemin a halfhearted nudge with his foot.

“Love is so fucking weird,” he mumbles around his straw. Taemin breathes out a soft laugh, patting his stomach. He wouldn’t know. “You know what’s nice, though?” Jonghyun asks, poking Taemin’s side with his foot again. “Weddings,” he continues. “Look at how cute this invitation they have is.” He holds up a little card for Taemin to see. It’s one of the the ones they’re supposed to try to match the bouquets with, but Jonghyun’s just looking at it with a little smile. “Do you think they’d let us come to their wedding?” he asks. “Is that a thing? Letting your florists attend your wedding?”

Taemin rolls his eyes. Here he goes, getting all wistful and lovey dovey again. He stands up, grabbing Jonghyun’s hand and tugging.

“Come on,” he says. “We can’t go to the wedding if we don’t even make the bouquets for it.”

“Good point,” Jonghyun says. He bounces up happily and tugs Taemin back out with him, already gushing about how cute weddings are again.


	12. Advice (Inspiration)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka love belt is Essential

****“So what do you think?” Jonghyun tilts his head up after his finishes strumming the end of the song he’d been working on. Above him, he squints through the setting sunlight to see that Taemin’s picking gunk out from under his fingernails with a safety pin. He frowns. “Bro,” he says.

“Hmm?” Taemin blinks down at him quickly. “Oh--sorry--I liked it. It was really nice.” He gives Jonghyun an approving nod that makes their hammock swing a little bit; Jonghyun squints suspiciously. Taemin pouts under his scrutiny. “I mean it, I was listening,” he whines. “I liked how the verses kinda just shifted into each other. It was really smooth. And I really liked the _‘hold me, hold me, hold me_ ,’ part.” He gives Jonghyun’s head a little pat; Jonghyun closes his eyes and turns against his stomach with a fond smile. He was listening. Good.

“Was there anything you didn’t like?” he asks, shifting and trying to turn gently enough that he doesn’t tip them over and send them sprawling into the grass. Taemin hums, jabbing his safety pin into the front of his jacket where he’s probably going to forget about it later.

“Why’d you say please _girl_?” he asks. “I get you writing songs about your ro feelings, but I’m pretty sure you don’t have straight feels.” Jonghyun laughs, gently lowering his guitar to the grass. He reaches up for Taemin’s hands to pull them over his shoulders so he can snuggle more comfortably against him.

“It’s gonna be a duet,” he says. “With Younha at that recital in a few weeks, remember?” Taemin better remember. He’s only been preparing for it for like, two months. It’s not his first with his composing club, but it is the first that he’s gotten to write most of the songs and make big decisions for.

“Oh--yeah,” Taemin says. “Well, everyone’s gonna love it.” He says it with such simple confidence, so matter-of-factly, that Jonghyun has to peer up at him again. This time, he’s touched.

“You think so?” he asks, trying not to smile too widely. Taemin nods.

“Yeah. It’s soft and slow and shit, and it’s warm, but it’s also kind of cold? It’s calming but also a bop. It’s fun. It feels like… Spring.” Taemin shrugs; Jonghyun grins at his attempts to express himself. He didn’t really get what he was going on about at first, but if he thinks about it, the song does kind of feel like Spring. Or, today, at least: calm and lazy but still busy enough to keep him going. “I kinda wanna make a dance to go with it,” Taemin mumbles. Jonghyun perks up immediately. Having Taemin dance at his performance to his own song would be great.

“Would you--”

“No,” Taemin cuts him off before he can even ask. Jonghyun doesn’t get too disappointed. Taemin’s dancing is something he likes to keep a part of his personal stuff, like some of his friends and his old scene phase. He just figured that there wouldn’t be any harm in asking. He pats Taemin’s hand on his shoulder, then reaches down for his guitar to practise through the song again. With Taemin’s comment about it feeling like Spring, he really tries to feel the day’s emotions this time around and incorporate them into the song.

Taemin tells him that he could really tell, later on, and it makes Jonghyun beam with both pride and several new ideas to add to his performance.


	13. A Weak Spot (Rained On)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taem is less coherent than usual

****As Jonghyun shuffles around the apricot saplings and checks for bugs and stray branches, he steps expertly around the little puddle where rain drips through a hole in the canvas overhead. It’s wet, rainy, grossly humid, and it all came out of nowhere, but it’s also kind of calm and peaceful. The rain patters pleasantly on the canvasses above these outdoor plants and he always has liked the smell around here when everything is damp.

He finishes up his inspection of the apricot trees with nothing too exciting to report, so he heads next to the koi pond to help Taemin play with the fish. Or, to “feed” them, as Taemin insists on calling it. Jonghyun’s told him that the only shame in slacking is when one tries to act like they’re not, but they’d agreed to disagree on that a while back.

He’s just turning the corner passed the succulents to smile at Taemin grinning over the koi pond when the bell over the door chimes in a new customer. Ahh, shit. He stops in his tracks to squint at the door and try to figure out if they look like someone that’ll need help--and then he almost trips over his own two feet trying to scramble forward to the pond because this is a customer that needs both of their help _immediately._

“Taemin,” he hisses. He glances back over his shoulder and smiles pretty, offers a little wave. “Taemin, It’s Jinki.”

“Oh--oh,” Taemin says, standing up quickly. His hand splashes out of the water and he looks around for something, anything to wipe it on before settling on Jonghyun’s apron. “It’s already dirty,” he mutters when Jonghyun opens his mouth to protest. Jonghyun humphs instead because he can’t come up with a good counter to that. Taemin links their arms and tugs Jonghyun forward two steps before he stops again. “Oh… my god,” he says slowly. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Jonghyun asks. He leans closer and peers at Taemin worriedly because his eyes have kind of gone out of focus and he looks a little bit dazed. He says “Oh my god” again and Jonghyun switches tactics, deciding to follow his gaze across the shop instead, where it lands on… Jinki. But they already knew that Jinki is there. He knows that Taemin always gets a little incoherent when Jinki first walks in because he’s just stunned by his beauty, but this is something else entirely. He gives Jinki his flirty little smile, tugs Taemin forward gently, and tries to figure out if there’s anything different about Jinki today.

He’s got his water darkened hair pulled back into a little ponytail with his bangs a little messier than usual, a dark t-shirt with some band on it and that totally babely denim jacket over his shoulders, spotted darker in some spots from the rain, little peeks of his collarbone tattoos visible over his shirt, the plants on his hand nice and vibrant and the other hand holding a small paper bag. He smiles at them as they approach and Jonghyun honestly can’t tell what has Taemin so enthralled. He nudges Taemin’s side before they get within earshot; Taemin stumbles a little bit on a crack in the pavement.

“Oh my god, he’s _wet_ ,” Taemin breathes. Jonghyun would call it a moan if he didn’t want Taemin to seem too pathetic. He snorts, shaking his head. And here he was, worried that Taemin might be internally dying or something.

“Well spotted,” he murmurs.

“Guh,” Taemin replies intelligently.

“Hey cuties,” Jinki grins. He gives them a wave with his flowered hand and a wiggle with his triple-pierced eyebrow. Jonghyun notes that his hair is indeed wet when he flicks his bangs out of his eyes and they kind of just plaster themselves into more of a mess on his forehead.

“Hi Jinki,” he smiles, tugging Taemin behind the counter with him. “You get stuck out in the rain?” he asks, since he knows that Taemin doesn’t have the coherency to comment on it right now. Jinki chuckles softly.

“A little bit, yeah,” he says. “The the drive-through line was long as dicks so I had to run through the parking lot and back, but--I bought us lunch,” he says cheerily.

“Food?” Taemin asks. Jonghyun throws him a glance and an amused smirk. He’s still out of it, but of course it’s food that’ll get his brain back. Jinki smiles as well and quirks brow. He holds up his paper bag, which Jonghyun comes to realize is from that fast food joint a few blocks away.

“I thought, you know, since it’s a rainy day, not many people would come in to occupy you two choice babes and we could spend some time together.” The way he says it makes Jonghyun nod with understanding--it’s going to be less play flirting and more real bro talks today. It’s what they usually fade into after more than ten or fifteen minutes anyway. There's only so long that they can blush and giggle.

“Sounds fun,” he hums, reaching out for Jinki’s tattooed hand because he can just… never help himself. It’s his favorite area of ink. As Jinki’s splaying his fingers out for him with a knowing smile, Jonghyun discretely nudges Taemin’s side with his elbow to get him to say something.

“Uh… food,” Taemin says. He reaches for the bag Jinki left on the desk and opens it up to peer inside. Jonghyun sighs, shaking his head fondly.

“You okay, sweetie?” Jinki asks, turning his attention to Taemin again. Taemin blinks at him, fry halfway to his mouth.

“Um,” he says, and Jonghyun muffles a giggle into his shoulder.

“He has a thing for wet babes,” he stage whispers, giving Jinki a pointed look. Jinki looks down at himself as Taemin makes another almost moan of attraction around his fry.

“You’re so wet, dude,” he groans. Then he stuffs another three into his mouth. Jonghyun shakes his head as Jinki laughs softly. Incredible.


	14. Perfect (Hammocks)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taems having a rly good day

****For all of his worrying about the plants getting overwatered and the cats in the meadow not finding shelter, Taemin loves the rain. Nothing else lets him just _be_ outside in the Spring with so little worry, even if it’s just a little bit. His allergy meds don’t stop pollen from clinging to him and face masks make him feel gross, but the fresh rains every now and then just wash everything away for the rest of the day.

He’s outside right now, swaying happily in the hammock under their trees and breathing as deeply as possible just because he can. The crisp air, the smell of damp earth, the not violently sneezing his brains out… he’s so fucking happy right now. Happy and relaxed, all snuggled up in one of Jonghyun’s giant sweaters. As long as it doesn’t start raining again soon he’s golden. He hums, shifting to his side and rubbing his face against his pillow. He’s more comfortable than he’s ever been in his life. He really needs to come out here and lie in this hammock more often. Once Spring is over, maybe.

And speaking of maybe: maybe he’ll take a nap. That sounds lovely. He snuggles more into a little ball and wiggles until the hammock is swaying gently under the trees. Perfect. Maybe when he wakes up, He’ll make himself some dinner. Yeah. On that happy thought, he dozes off.

When he awakes, it’s because he was woken up and not because he wanted to. He groans, flapping a hand at the hands on his waist, the heavy body behind him, and the sudden wobbling of the hammock in a mild panic. He gets a soft chuckle in reply.

“Relax, it’s just me,” Jonghyun murmurs softly. “I thought it would be easier to sneak up here.” Taemin sighs, relieved that it’s only Jonghyun, but still grumpy. It’s a fucking hammock. He can never manage to get on them easily on his own.

“I swear to fuck, if you make me fall,” he says threateningly. Jonghyun laughs again and pats his hip.

“I won't, I promise,” he says. “I’m just--trying to--god--fucking--” the hammock is shaking even more than before and Taemin is sure that he almost flips upside-down once. “Almost-- _there_ ,” Jonghyun says triumphantly. He presses up against Taemin’s back and slips his arm around his waist; the hammock slowly sways back to an acceptable level of movement. “Piece of cake,” He says. If Taemin’s eyes were still open, he would have rolled them. He just tugs Jonghyun’s arm more around him instead, glad that he’s back from the movies.

“Did you bring me food?” he asks. He knows he and his friends usually go out to eat when they hang out. Maybe Jonghyun brought home a half-empty carton of fries for him from somewhere. Or some movie theatre popcorn. Jonghyun hums in the affirmative and rubs his thumb over Taemin’s hand.

“I brought you leftover Italian,” he says. “Plus some McNuggets.”

“Oh my god,” Taemin says. He’s never loved the fact that the Italian place is right next door to the McDonald’s and that both are right across the street from the theatre more. “This is the best day of my life,” he says, bringing Jonghyun’s hand up to kiss it. Rain and no allergies and a cozy hammock nap and Italian with a side of chicken nuggets for dinner. He’s so fucking blessed. He feels Jonghyun’s grin when he presses it to the back of his neck.

“Do you wanna go eat now?” he asks. Taemin takes a deep breath--he really does want to--but if he thinks about it, he’s really fucking comfortable right now with Jonghyun snuggled up behind him. He was planning on sleeping for a little longer anyway. Tempting as it is, the food can wait.

“Later,” he mumbles. He wiggles carefully to turn around and bury his face in Jonghyun’s neck. He manages it with only a little uncertain shaking from the hammock, something he’s mildly proud of. “How was the movie?” he asks. “Also, what movie was it?” He’s already forgotten what Jonghyun said he was going to go see that morning. Jonghyun shifts and moves instead of answering right away, but before Taemin has time to wonder what he’s doing, the hammock starts swaying gently, soothingly. Oh. He hums happily, snuggling even more into Jonghyun’s chest. Today is such a good day.


	15. Weeb Festival (Cherry Blossoms)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong used to be a weeb

****“I feel like I’m in weeaboo heaven,” Taemin mutters, looking around with a strange mixture of fondness and distaste. They’re taking a stroll through the park on the third day of the city’s Cherry Blossom festival. According to Jonghyun, it’s the day with the least people because the early attendees have already gone and the late ones haven’t procrastinated for long enough. Taemin still thinks it’s pretty crowded, but maybe that’s because he’s never been to this festival before because he thought it would be full of weebs.

“It is not _weeaboo heaven_ ,” Jonghyun scoffs. “It’s pretty flowers. And culture. And tradition. It’s not like--” He stops short as a small group of preteens wearing Naruto headbands wander right across their path to a food booth. Taemin snorts, and then muffles his laughter into the hand that he doesn’t have linked with Jonghyun’s.

“Are you sure?” he asks. He can hear the accessorized Japanese from over here. Jonghyun just puffs his face up in a cute little pout. Taemin has a floating suspicion that he’s remembering his own weeb days as well. He knows for a fact that Jonghyun still rereads his old Sailor Moon mangas from time to time.

“I refuse to let the fact that this is weeaboo heaven ruin my fun,” he says snootily, turning his nose up and tugging Taemin further along. “Come on,” he says, “the stream is just up ahead.” Ooh. The stream. Taemin was kind of looking forward to that; pretty pink petals floating gently through the water. He kinda wants to share a totally cliché, photogenic, not at all romantic kiss under the patchy shade of a tree as cherry blossom petals flutter into their hair, purely for the aesthetic. He’s gonna pay for a picture of the pair of them doing it and everything.

A pretty pink petal flutters ever so gently into his eye in the middle of the kiss, so their picture is of Jonghyun cackling while he has his face in his hands. It’s definitely not what they wanted and the picture guy offers to do a retake, but he kind of likes it anyway. They buy that piece of shit and Taemin fully plans to frame it and put it up in their kitchen somewhere whenever it comes in the mail.

“It’s my first memory of this weeb festival, Jonghyun, it’ll be a great picture,” he grins, bumping his hip into Jonghyun’s side as Jonghyun rolls his eyes for the umpteenth time.

“It’s not a _weeb festival_ ,” he grumbles. He tugs Taemin across the bridge of the stream, where the next batch of booths are all for anime and J-pop. Taemin doesn’t even try to smother his laughter when Jonghyun deflates against his side with a huge sigh.


	16. Kitty Kitty (Baby Animals)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong finds some kittens uwu

****Taemin is finishing a particularly tiring dance that consists mostly of headbanging and doing sweet jumps from couch to couch when there’s a loud knock on the back door. He jumps, this time out of fright, and almost trips over his own two feet; getting his footing back, he looks up to find Jonghyun[pressed up against the glass](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-n3eXU9tI&feature=youtu.be) and grinning at him. He breathes a sigh of relief--he doesn’t know what else he was expecting, but he’s glad it’s just this nerd. And he didn’t catch him doing a serious dance, so that’s good too. He pushes his hair out of his face and catches his breathing quickly enough.

“What?” he asks, loud enough to be heard through the door.

“You have a nice butt,” Jonghyun calls back. His breath fogs up the glass and Taemin rolls his eyes. He almost scared the shit out of him just to let him know that. Incredible. He’s turning away to look for the remote to the stereo when Jonghyun taps urgently on the glass again. “No no no no wait, I had something actually important to show you,” he says. “Come out here.”

Out there. With all of the pollen and the evening bugs and the skunk smell from somewhere down the street. Taemin makes a face.

“Do I have to?” he asks. Jonghyun nods insistently, tapping his fingers on the glass with impatience. Taemin sighs. He did take his allergy meds earlier, at least, so he leaves his music on and heads outside to see what Jonghyun wants. “What?” he asks as Jonghyun takes his hand and tugs him to the pile of old junk in the back corner of their yard. It looks the same as usual; ratty old towels, some cracked plastic flowerpots, squished storage boxes from when they were moving in. Jonghyun slows down once they get close to it all though, tiptoeing gently and putting a finger to his lips.

“Shh,” he says, and crouches down in the grass. “Look,” he whispers. Taemin raises his brows, then gets to his knees as well and peers under an upturned box propped up slightly by a small stack of bricks. It takes him a few moments of squinting, but once he sees it, his heart practically melts.

“Oh--my god,” he squeaks, sitting back on his heels so he can cover his mouth before he makes too much noise. “They’re so fucking cute,” he hisses through his fingers, wiggling to lie on his stomach for a better view of the little litter of kittens bundled up under there. If he shifts just a little bit to the right, he can see that their mother is that stray orange and white tabby from the meadow over the fence. She’s used to them--Taemin’s found her prowling around their backyard and given her a few pets more than once--which is probably why she chose their junk pile to keep her kittens in. He wonders if she’s always been sleeping there and they just never noticed.

“We should call Tiff, right?” Jonghyun whispers, nudging Taemin’s side. Taemin takes a moment to register his words because one of the little kittens is stretching out their little paws and he’s trying not to spontaneously combust. Tiff… Tiffany… their vet friend. “She can come look at them and see if they should be in a shelter or if they can stay here or whatever,” Jonghyun continues. Taemin nods blankly. Yes. Kitty care is good. These kittens are almost a month old, Taemin thinks, with their sleepy little meows and big blue eyes. He feels personally offended by the fact that he’s been missing out on cute little kits for four whole weeks. He needs to make up for lost time.

“Go ahead,” he says, flapping a hand lightly against Jonghyun’s arm. “They’re so fucking tiny,” he breathes. He scoots closer and slowly creeps his other hand forward to see if any of them are more adventurous; one with a wavy white ring around the orange of their chest fur slinks towards it and sniffs. “Fuck,” he squeaks. “Hurry before I get too attached.” It’s probably too late for that already.

He wants to name this one Egg.


	17. fuck (Park Strolls)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka there's lots of pollen out there

****The sun is promisingly warm when Jonghyun opens their front door. He smiles, patting his jean pockets to make sure he’s not forgetting anything. Nothing ruins a walk in the park more than realizing that he doesn’t have his wallet to buy cheap lemonade with at the snack stand. He inspects his reflection for a moment in the mirror next to the door, then glances behind his reflection at where Taemin is stuffing a last handful of chips in his mouth with one hand and crumpling up the bag with his other.

“Ready to go?” he asks, grinning when Taemin jumps slightly and snaps his gaze him in the mirror. He wasn’t even trying to scare him.

“Um,” Taemin says, after swallowing his mouthful of chips. “Yeah, yeah.” He lobs the bag into the garbage can and wipes his dirty hand on his pants. He tries to push passed Jonghyun and out of the door, but Jonghyun throws his arm in front of him and blocks his path. Taemin grunts, grabbing onto his arm on reflex. “What?” he asks.

“Did you take your meds today?” he asks. Taemin opens his mouth with a confident breath, but then hesitates before he utters a sound. Jonghyun cocks an eyebrow. “Because you forgot to, last time,” he says pointedly. If there’s anything that ruins a walk in the park more than a forgotten wallet, it’s forgotten allergy meds. Taemin frowns for a moment, glancing at the bedroom door, and then looks back quickly with a little gasp of remembrance.

“I did,” he says. “I’m sure,” he adds before Jonghyun can ask. Jonghyun smiles and leans to press a congratulatory kiss to his lips.

“Good,” he says, and moves his arm from in front of Taemin’s chest to link with his arm instead. Taemin smiles proudly and leads them outside, tugging the door closed behind them and then pulling Jonghyun down the sidewalk towards the park.

Half an hour, a stuffy nose, and ten sneezes later, Jonghyun is starting to think that Taemin didn’t actually take his meds.

“I _did,_ ” Taemin whines when Jonghyun voices this concern out loud. He looks like he’s about to cry, but Jonghyun is almost sure it’s because his eyes are just puffy from all of the pollen. Still, it’s a valid form of feeling miserable, so he just sighs and stuffs his hand into his back pocket for the facemask he brought along just in case.

“Here,” he says, offering it to Taemin. Taemin’s pouts increase at the sight of it, but he takes it anyway and loops the ends around his ears. “I wasn’t expecting you to have forgotten, I was just being prepared,” he says gently. He knows that Taemin hates when people expect him to fuck up because of his bad memory.

“But I didn’t forget,” Taemin whines, voice muffled behind the fabric. “I took them, I did.” He’s looking increasingly pathetic, so Jonghyun wraps him up in a hug and presses a comforting kiss to his temple.

“ _When_ did you take them?” he asks.

“In the morning, when I woke up,” Taemin says, giving Jonghyun his pouty eyes since his pouty lips are covered. In the morning. When he woke up. Jonghyun sighs as he starts to understand what the problem is.

“Taemin…,” he says, trying not so smile because the simple misunderstanding of this is actually kind of funny. “That was at nine.”

“Yeah?” Taemin just blinks at him, confusion in his puffy eyes. Jonghyun sighs again, with fondness this time.

“You switched to the six hour pills, remember?” he asks. “Because you kept complaining about the twenty-four hour ones.”

“They were too big,” Taemin whines, and Jonghyun rolls his eyes. He knows. He knows that Taemin isn’t good at swallowing regular pills, let alone big ones. That’s not the point.

“It’s like, five, right now,” he says, pulling out his phone to check the time. “Five-thirty,” he corrects himself. “Your pills started wearing off over two hours ago.”

“I--oh,” Taemin says, voice suddenly little. “Oh, fuck.” Then he tenses up, lifts a hand to tug his facemask down, and sneezes into his elbow. Jonghyun grins when Taemin clumsily pulls the mask back over his face. “Can we go home?” he asks, sniffling grossly. Jonghyun tries not to giggle as he unwraps his arms from around Taemin’s body and links them together at the elbow again.

“Sure,” he says. “You should probably change and shower as soon as possible.” That and take his fucking meds again. They were almost at the point where they usually turn around and head back anyway. Taemin just grumbles and tugs them back down the plant-decorated path, but Jonghyun can tell that it’s a grateful grumble by the way he leans his head against his shoulder and squeezes his arm.


	18. Strawberry Love (Music Festivals)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taems a lil tipsy  
>  **tw for alcohol**

****This was a really good idea. Taemin was reluctant at first, not really one for big crowds and not really familiar with so many of Jonghyun’s friends, but he’s glad he came. It’s a mellow festival, not a full on concert. Chill music, free space, and a crowd that sways together under the dusk sunlight, some sober, some stoned, some tipsy on the fancy beers and wines being sold at the back.

Taemin falls into that last category, and he grins lazily as he clings to Jonghyun’s arm. He flirted a whole bottle of strawberry wine from the cute bartender earlier. It hangs in his hand at his side, almost loose from his tipsiness but still firm because even if he was drunk off his ass he would know that the number one rule is to never spill your alcohol. That Fun. song that he can’t remember the name of right now comes on and he gasps, turning to Jonghyun and shaking his arm.

“Hey,” he says. “Hey, I know this one.” It’s a shitty cover and normally he hates shitty covers, but it’s the first song he’s known out of the whole time they’ve been there and it’s making him overly excited. Jonghyun turns from a conversation he was having with someone else to smile at him and nod.

“Wanna go dance, then?” he asks. Taemin gasps again.

“Yes,” he hisses. He fucking loves dancing. He hadn’t really wanted to go into the crowd on his own, but now that Jonghyun is offering he has his chance. Jonghyun chuckles at his eagerness and turns back to excuse himself from his friends. Taemin waves sloppily at them because he kind of likes them all so far and then sways into Jonghyun as he tries to tug him more towards where all of the people are dancing in the grass.

“You’re having fun,” Jonghyun states, holding Taemin’s waist when they get near enough and quirking a brow. Taemin nods happily, takes another swig of his strawberry wine, and then wraps his arms around Jonghyun’s neck.

“You’re too short to be the leading one,” he hums. “Or… maybe not. Did you get taller?” He swears Jonghyun is taller. He’s looking up at him instead of down like usual. Jonghyun chuckles and shakes his head fondly.

“No, you’re just more slouchy than usual,” he says. Taemin hums Oh. Then he giggles. Of course Jonghyun didn’t get taller. He’s been shorter the whole time Taemin’s known him. He buries his giggles in Jonghyun’s shoulder as Jonghyun rocks him gently to the tune of the music.

“You’re so short,” he grins against Jonghyun’s skin. He’s short and it’s funny, especially when he tries to reach things from high cabinets. “It’s okay, though,” he says, lifting his head just in case he made Jonghyun feel bad. “I still love you. I love you and your short… flat butt.” He presses a kiss to Jonghyun’s lips. He starts giggling halfway through it again because now he’s thinking about how flat Jonghyun’s butt is. Jonghyun kisses him back softly. Taemin hums, happy to follow, until he has a sudden thought.

“But not in like, a romantic way,” he says. Talking against Jonghyun’s lips is weird so he moves to mumble against his jaw instead. “In like… a friend way. And also, an admiring way. I admire you,” he mumbles. “You’re really good at things.” He’s talking into Jonghyun’s neck now but he doesn’t remember moving down there. “And I love your dick,” he adds, smiling a little wider at how good Jonghyun’s dick always is to him. A breathy laugh leaves Jonghyun’s lips and he pushes Taemin back a little bit.

“You’ve had a little too much to drink, I think,” he says amusedly. Taemin pouts. He has not.

“I’m just trying to tell you that I love you,” he whines. “You deserve love, Jonghyun.” He leans back more and flaps a hand out behind him for emphasis. It’s the one that was holding his wine. Once he realizes, he smiles happily and takes another drink. “Everyone deserves a little love,” he says after he swallows. His still swaying hand almost collides with someone dancing with their partner next to them. There. Case in point. “You,” he says, tapping their shoulder to get their attention. He gives them a little wave and reaches clumsily for their hand. They have really cute hair. “I love you,” he tells them honestly.

“Okay--” Jonghyun grabs his wrist and tugs it away from Taemin’s new love and gives them an apologetic little smile. Taemin pouts as he’s scooted away from them. “You’re drunk,” Jonghyun tells him firmly. He takes Taemin’s wine from his hand and reaches in his jacket pocket for the cork. Taemin whines softly, trying to grab for the bottle.

“I am not,” he insists. There’s still half of the bottle left. He’s just tipsy. Jonghyun pushes his hand away with his sober strength and coordination. Taemin humphs. Cheater.

“You’re almost drunk, then,” he says. “Once you start getting all touchy feely you’re only a couple of mouthfuls away.” He slips Taemin’s wine into his bag behind him, where Taemin won’t be able to figure out the buttons. Taemin pouts more as his fingers fumble uselessly with the fabric. Before he can whine again, Jonghyun takes his hands and puts them back around his neck. “Come on,” he coos. “Dance with me. We’ll leave in an hour or two and get some food with everyone else, yeah? How’s that sound?” He tilts Taemin’s chin up and presses a kiss to his lips.

That sounds… really nice, Taemin thinks. It’ll be just turning dark then and he might be able to take a nap against Jonghyun’s side on the way back into town since they got a ride from someone else. And then food. Taemin hums happily and nuzzles against Jonghyun’s neck, pressing up closer to him and giving his skin a little kiss.

“Okay,” he murmurs, letting Jonghyun sway them back and forth to the music that floats around them, blending into to the crowd that he loves so much.


	19. uwu (Streams)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka usually jongs ro feels just give him a sweet lil cheek pap

****“I think… I’m feeling ro.”

Jonghyun turns to Taemin after a few moments of silence from him. He’s staring blankly at the water flowing under them, but after a moment, he blinks and turns.

“Hmm?” he asks. “Ro feels?” Jonghyun breathes out a soft laugh and looks back at the water. He’s not even surprised that Taemin was zoning out. It’s nice up here over the stream in the park, tangled up in the bridge railing with their feet dangling over the water. Nice and warm with a fresh Spring breeze that tousles their hair. He wiggles to get more comfortable with his head in his arms on top of the wooden railing.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “But I’m not… sure.” He shrugs and watches a leaf float down the stream until it passes under them. One would think that he’d be able to understand his own feelings by now, but no. He’s never gotten any better at it. “I’m not sure if I’m feeling this good right now because I love you, or because I’m just… really relaxed and happy.” They usually feel the same to him, but the love has that one extra thing that makes him breathe a little deeper around Taemin. He’s not entirely sure if he has that yet.

“Hmm,” Taemin hums, lazy but still interested. “Well, let’s let fate decide, then.”

“What?” Jonghyun asks, but Taemin is already clambering from his comfortable position on the bridge railing. “What are you--hey, don’t, you’ll fall,” Jonghyun whines, trying to tug Taemin back down. Taemin ignores him other than to hold his hand with one hand as he climbs up to stand on the top beam. He lifts up to his tiptoes and reaches up into the branches of the tree swaying above them.

“Aha,” he grunts triumphantly, and turns to show Jonghyun the flower in his hand with a grin. “Perfect.” He jumps backwards to land on the bridge, then clambers back to fit himself between the railing beams again. “Okay,” he says as Jonghyun pets his hair gently and breathes a little sigh of relief that he didn’t fall the wrong way. “Flower.”

“Yes, flower,” Jonghyun agrees, wondering what this has to do with anything. Taemin wiggles it a little bit, gives him a knowing grin, and plucks off one petal.

“He loves me,” he says, and then tosses it into the water. Jonghyun snorts the most unattractive snort and puts his face back into his arms. Fuck.

“Taemin, _no,”_ he giggles. “That’s not how it _works.”_

“He loves me not,” Taemin says loftily, plucking off a second petal and letting it flutter down as well. Jonghyun shakes his head fondly. Taemin doesn’t keep repeating himself, but he does keep depetaling his flower with a soft little smile. Jonghyun matches it and scoots closer to him, leaning his head against his shoulder and watching his fingers work. He knows that Taemin knows this isn’t how it works. He’s just giving Jonghyun time to process his feelings and ease into them like usual. It’s one of the things Jonghyun loves about him, in both a ro way and a bro way.

Their comfortable silence stays while Taemin goes around his flower. Jonghyun wonders what the people down the stream are going to think when a little line of flower petals comes floating their way. It makes him smile, and he presses that gently against Taemin’s cheek just because he can. This is nice. He feels warm, comfortable, relaxed, happy…. Taemin picks off his final petal and then throws both it and the empty stem into the stream. Jonghyun hums.

“So what have the fates decided?” he asks quietly. Taemin shrugs, lifting a hand to pet through Jonghyun’s hair.

“I zoned out again and lost track halfway through,” he says. “I don’t know.” He shrugs again and Jonghyun snorts. He doesn’t know why he expected any different.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. He turns his head more to face Taemin’s skin, takes a deep breath and lets it out with an easy smile. “I figured it out myself.”


	20. New Plans (Unexpected Rain)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong fricked up

****Lights off, back doors locked, plants watered… Jonghyun goes through a mental checklist as he fixes his jacket up over his shoulders. Locking up the shop always stresses him out because he gets paranoid that they’ll forget something and Minho will fire them. It’s a ridiculous notion--Minho’s never even around unless it’s to flirt badly with Kibum next door--but still. He worries. He pats his pockets to make sure he’s not forgetting anything personal and glances around the rest of the shop.

“Did you find the umbrella yet?” He raises his voice so Taemin can hear him from where he’s rummaging around in the back closet. They’re gonna fucking need it and it’s his fault; he’s the one that wanted to walk to the shop that morning. He didn’t know it was going to start pouring in the middle of the day. It was so nice and warm outside when he woke up. They can take the bus home, but the stop is still a block away.

“Yeah, plus like, five of my sweaters,” Taemin calls back. Jonghyun catches him walking back with their umbrella under one arm and a bundle of clothes under the other. “You’re supposed to remember these things for me,” he says, pouting at Jonghyun like it’s his fault that he forgets his own shit here for months. When Taemin gets close enough, he takes a sweater from his arms and pulls it over his head because it looks even colder outside than it did five minutes ago.

“Yeah, well,” he mumbles. “Take better care of your shit,” he says as he pops his head out of the collar. Taemin rolls his eyes and opens up his bag to start jamming the rest of the clothes in there. “Oh my god,” Jonghyun says. He literally just told him and he’s already--ugh. “Give me those.” He yanks them out of Taemin’s hands and puts them on the counter to start folding. Taemin scoffs.

“Excuse me, your majesty,” he snoots. “Not like they weren’t already wrinkled.” Jonghyun flaps his wrist with one of his sweater sleeves to show him just what he thinks of his lazy attitude. Taemin pokes him back, and then sits back down in his chair and rests his head on the counter while he waits. It’s silent for a minute as he stares out at the rain and Jonghyun folds his sweaters, and then Taemin mumbles so quietly that Jonghyun almost misses it. “I think I’m gonna cancel on Hyo today.”

“Weren’t you two gonna get some dance practise in?” Jonghyun asks curiously. He doesn’t know what Taemin’s been trying to perfect lately, but he knows that he’s been working harder than usual on it. Taemin shrugs tiredly.

“Yeah, but she has Hyukjae to practise with,” he says. “I’d be useless today anyway. You know how rain makes me sleepy.” Jonghyun does indeed know that. He’s been half falling asleep between the shelves all day. He hums, folding the last sweater up and tucking it nicely into Taemin’s bag next to the others.

“Wanna go get some coffee, then?” he asks. A nice, snuggly date in a warm cozy coffee shop sounds perfect right about now. He can watch raindrops play over the window and contemplate the meaning of life while Taemin doesn’t pretend to listen and dozes off on his shoulder. Taemin blinks slowly and smiles when Jonghyun hands him his bag again.

“Yeah, okay,” he says. “Can we get food after?”

Coffee and food. Jonghyun couldn’t come up with a better plan if he’d tried. He nods, takes the umbrella from the desk, pats Taemin’s butt with it, and links their arms together when Taemin giggles sleepily. They shiver when they get outside, but Jonghyun works the umbrella open as Taemin locks the door behind them. The coffee shop is just across the street and a little bit down, so Jonghyun nudges Taemin down the sidewalk and grins as he stumbles a little bit. As they’re splashing through the puddle in the middle of the crosswalk and watching the rain cascade off of the edges of their umbrella, Jonghyun figures that he’s actually kind of glad that they walked to work today. This is nice.


	21. Nothing New (Rainbows)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taem isn't rly that interesed

****"Weather is so fucking weird,” Taemin mumbles. He gets two questioning hums: one from Jonghyun against his stomach and one from Jinki under his legs. He goes to the effort of lifting his head enough to glance at them on the couch with him before letting it fall back against the armrest. He watches the light rain patter against the back windows with a little frown. “It’s sunny and rainy at the same time,” he says. “That’s always been weird as fuck to me.”

He gets another two hums in reply and shrugs. He wasn’t really expecting much for his observation. They’re all pretty invested in this Steven Universe marathon they’ve got going on. He’d been kind of zoning out because he’s seen this one episode a hundred times and rain usually makes him sleepy anyway. He lifts his hand to play with Jonghyun’s hair lazily until Jonghyun sits up so suddenly that he knocks Taemin’s hand away.

“Wait,” he says eagerly, twisting to peer through the back windows as well. “That means there should be a rainbow.” He twists even more to grin eagerly at Taemin; Taemin grunts because Jonghyun’s elbow is suddenly digging into his stomach. “Oh--sorry," Jonghyun says quickly, moving his arm away. “But--a rainbow,” he repeats. He wiggles to get off of Taemin and off of the couch, much to Taemin’s displeasure. He was a warm and comfortable weight.

“You’ve seen like, a hundred rainbows,” he whines as Jonghyun bounces to tug on Jinki’s hand. Now he’s trying to take Taemin’s babe of a leg rest away too. He pouts as hard as he can at the pair of them; Jinki smiles sympathetically and takes one of Taemin’s hands in his inked one to press a kiss to it.

“I’ve seen you a hundred times and more but you’re still pretty to look at,” he hums. Taemin scrunches up his face. How the fuck is he supposed to stay mad at that? Charming suave piece of shit.

“Unfair,” he mumbles. Jonghyun snickers and Jinki gives Taemin his hand back. They head out back without him for a few minutes (since he’s definitely not going out there where it’s wet and humid) and he sighs, alone. He gropes for the remote under his butt to pause the tv, and then rolls gracelessly off of the couch to make them all some popcorn for when the other two decide to come back in.

As he’s absently watching the bag rotate inside of the microwave, there’s a knock against one of the windows behind him. He turns to see Jonghyun pressed up against it in that way he does, pointing at the latch in a request for Taemin to open it. Taemin obliges, shuffling over to sit on his knees at the kitchen table and work the glass open.

“You can see it from here,” Jonghyun tells him cheerily, turning back and pointing across the street. Taemin leans forward to squint over the houses and telephone poles where there is, in fact, a rainbow. It looks the same as every other rainbow he’s ever seen, but he has to admit that Jinki was right--it is still pretty.


	22. Unlucky (Four-Leaf Clovers)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka taem misunderstood

****Taemin is pretty.

Jonghyun knows this as just a general fact of life, but sometimes, he really notices it and has to take a few moments to just sit back and appreciate his existence. He’s doing that right now as he leans up against their side fence outside. He’s supposed to be rinsing off spiderwebs and dust from the wood, but he can give himself a break to watch Taemin as he leans out of the kitchen window and fluffs through the flowerbox for weeds.

His kind of blobby lips, his dark eyes, his cute fake nose, the way his hair has dried today to fan out a bit and frame his face…. What a pretty pretty babe. As he watches, Taemin frowns at something in his flowers, then blinks, and then smiles, his face breaking out into a huge, bright-eyed smile. Wow. That’s fucking gorgeous. Jonghyun’s glad he was watching just now. Taemin plucks something out of the flowerbox and then looks up, eyes scanning the yard until they land on Jonghyun.

“Hey,” he calls, and wow, he even sounds extra pretty today. “Hey, c’mere, look at this.” Jonghyun raises his eyebrows and then leaves the fence to pick his way through their mini meadow and lean up against the flowerbox.

“What?” he asks, curiously peering at what’s in Taemin’s stubby little fingers.

“I found a three-leaf clover,” he says excitedly, showing Jonghyun the little weed. Jonghyun blinks. Well, that was anticlimactic.

“Um,” he says. “Okay? Do you want me to put it with the rest of the weeds?” he holds his hand out for Taemin to drop the little sprout into; Taemin’s smile falters and he brings it possessively back inside the window.

“No,” he says indignantly. “Dude--it’s a _three-leaf clover_. You know, lucky?” He holds it up for Jonghyun to see insistently and Jonghyun frowns, confused, for a solid five seconds before he understands.

“Oh,” he says, eyes widening. “ _Oh,_ ” and now he’s bringing a hand up to smother giggles. Taemin’s pretty lips curve into a pretty little pout.

“What?” he asks, eyebrows coming to a cute furrow. Jonghyun giggles into the back of his hand for a moment more, then reaches gently for the weed.

“Taemin,” he says. “It’s _four_ -leaf clovers that are lucky. Not three.” He plucks the little sprout from Taemin’s fingers and inspects it amusedly. “This is just a regular weed.” He doesn’t throw it away, but he does gesture with it over his shoulder at the compost bin behind him that’s practically full of these things. Taemin blinks, looking slowly between Jonghyun and the clover.

“Oh,” he says quietly. He casts his eyes down and bites his lip. “Oh, fuck.”

“Bae,” Jonghyun says, tilting his head to peek under Taemin’s bangs. Taemin’s cheeks are slowly turning from pink to crimson as his teeth dig into his lip. “Oh, bae,” Jonghyun laughs. He reaches up to cup Taemin’s cheeks and kiss him through the window. “It’s okay,” he says, as soothingly as he can manage when he’s trying not to shake with laughter. Taemin makes a ruined, embarrassed noise and pulls away, face now a bright crimson.

“I knew that,” he says quickly, and then lurches away from the window and to the fridge for a bottle of water to chug. Jonghyun giggles and jogs to the front door to let himself in. He finds Taemin curled up on one of the corner couches, still red-faced with shame and sipping his water.

Still pretty, Jonghyun thinks, and slips over there to kiss him up and make him feel better.


	23. Resourceful (In Season Food)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jong goes on a not-so-voluntary baking kick

****Taemin barely makes it out from the bedroom with five minutes to spare before noon, but he is up and out before noon, so he can’t be faulted for anything. He pushes his shower wet hair out of his face and wiggles his pants more up his hips as he walks. Jonghyun’s in the kitchen already; maybe he’s hungry and will make a combination of lunch and breakfast so Taemin won’t have to cook. Taemin thinks he’s already cooking something, though, as he rounds the corner and peers curiously at their counters. Smells like cake.

“Are you baking?” he asks, finding Jonghyun standing over the baking tray with a knife. Jonghyun looks up with a little grin.

“Yeah,” he says. “C’mere and hold this for me.” He scoots to the side and Taemin scoots next to him, peering down with interest. He’s got a sheet cake in there and is attempting to hold down a circle tupperware lid to use as a stencil. Taemin presses it down for him and watches as he cuts out the circle.

“Layer cake?” he asks, moving the lid to the next empty portion of cake when Jonghyun nods.

“With strawberries,” he says happily. Taemin gasps. He fucking loves strawberries. He’s so pumped for this cake. He sneaks his hand in to pluck a tiny piece off of their second circle, but Jonghyun gives his hand a sharp tap with the flat site of the knife. “No,” he says sternly. “This one’s for Jinki. And Kibum, I guess.” He moves the lid to a third area and Taemin pouts for several reasons. His hand hurts, Jonghyun was making a cake for Jinki without him, and--

“This one?” he asks. Like, this one specifically, implying that there’s more than just the one? Jonghyun nods.

“Yeah. Ours is setting up in the fridge. I did it first so I’d have some practise so I wouldn’t fuck up Jinki’s. And because I knew you’d want to decorate his.”

“Oh,” Taemin says slowly. Jonghyun moves his hands so he can cut a fourth and final circle; once he’s done, Taemin goes to look in the fridge where the admittedly sloppy looking cake is firming up. And also like, smothered in strawberries. Taemin raises an amused brow, reaching in to poke some frosting off of the side.

“I wanna make an orange bundt cake later, too,” Jonghyun says from where he’s carefully separating his cake circles from the scraps. “Do you want breakfast? I can make us fruit smoothies and I put together some apricot-kiwi parfaits earlier.” He sounds so bright and cheery about it all. Taemin snorts, closing the fridge and shaking his head fondly.

“I told you you bought too much fruit at that market,” he says. Jonghyun doesn’t reply immediately other than with pouty lips and pink-tinged cheeks. Taemin won’t give him shit for it, though. It’s not like he’s never done the same and had to figure out how to use it all before everything goes bad.

“Help me stack these all up and then I’ll make us some real food before we decorate it,” Jonghyun says. He picks up the baking tray and carries it to the table, stopping off halfway to offer Taemin one of the scrap pieces of cake. Taemin takes it gratefully.

“I’ve always kinda wanted to do that thing where you cut orange slices like, between the membranes,” he says, wiggling his fingers to demonstrate. They have oranges to spare a couple of fuckups with. And it’ll probably go great next to banana pancakes.


	24. Splash (Puddle Splashing)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka they are mature and serious adults

****It occurs to Taemin, as they bounce around giggling in what’s probably the twentieth puddle on the path through the park, that they sky has been clouding up again overhead while they’ve been staring at the ground.

“Hey, you brought the umbrella, right?” he asks, nudging Jonghyun’s attention away from their puddle. Jonghyun looks up, confused for a split second before nodding.

“Yeah, I have it,” he says. He swings his bag around to show Taemin the little puppy tail handle sticking out of the end. Taemin breathes out a soft laugh of relief.

“Oh, good,” he grins. He didn’t want a repeat of last time, where they were over a mile away from home with no umbrella and it started pouring on them. It’ll probably start raining soon, with the way the sky looks right now, but at least they’re prepared this time. They probably could have avoided it entirely if they hadn’t wasted so much time making detours to every puddle they saw, but that would have just... defeated their whole purpose that day. They gotta take risks if they wanna have some puddle-splashing fun. It comes with the territory. Comes with _living on the edge_ like they they do. And that’s not even the trickiest part. Taemin’s left sock is kind of wet from that big puddle by the willow tree-- _that’s_ some serious danger, right there.

“I’m hungry,” Jonghyun says suddenly. It startles Taemin out of his thoughts--probably not the worst thing that’s ever happened to him--and makes him look up. Hungry. Yeah, he’s kind of hungry too. All of this puddle splashing has kept them out longer than they usually take for their walks around the park.

“Wanna go get churros?” he asks, pointing at where they can just see the snack shack over a hill. Jonghyun blinks blankly at him.

“They have churros here?” he asks. “No way.”

“Yes way,” Taemin says. “It’s Churro Thursday.” They’ve always had churros here on Thursdays. He doesn’t believe that Jonghyun didn’t know this.

“Bruh,” Jonghyun says. “I want a churro.”

“Bruh,” Taemin parrots. “Let’s go get churros.”

They head off for the snack shack at a giggly, heavily interrupted by puddles jog, and Taemin is kind of out of breath by the time they get to the ordering window because Jonghyun kept tugging on his jacket to get him to go faster. Taemin is not a fast person. Jonghyun orders for him since he’s too busy trying to breathe and giggle at the same time, noting Taemin’s shaking of his elbow as a request for his to be a chocolate-dipped one. He catches his breath just in time for Jonghyun to pull out his wallet.

“I got it,” he says, waving Jonghyun’s hand away. Jonghyun paid for them last time, and the time before that, and the one before that. “Go find the least wet table for us to sit at,” he adds, waving his hand at the picnic tables behind them.

“‘Kay,” Jonghyun says. He pats Taemin’s butt and wanders off, leaving Taemin to lean against the counter and wait for their churros. When he gets them, he scans the area quickly and then heads over to where Jonghyun is sitting at the table closest to the biker path. Jonghyun grins and waves him over eagerly so he can take his churro and drink. “There was a less wet table over there,” he says, gesturing behind them, “but this one has a puddle under it, look.” He grins and taps his feet against the ground under them enough to make little splashes with a giggle. “And we’re right in front of that giant ass puddle in the middle of the path, see--” he points dead ahead at where there is, indeed, a giant ass puddle.

“Bruh,” Taemin says again. He bets that makes the _best_ splash when people ride their bikes through it. If they get to see one of those he won’t even care in the slightest if they get rained on.


	25. Masterpiece (Art Festivals)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka jinkis the cute face painter

****“That’s good, keep smiling pretty, pretty.”

Jonghyun smiles even prettier than before, if possible, and tries not to be so flattered that he giggles. He wouldn’t want to mess up Jinki’s work on his cheek. It doesn’t help that Jinki is unnecessarily holding his chin to keep his face steady as he paints a pink hibiscus onto his skin.

He still can’t believe their luck. Taemin’s fingers play with his as he smiles sweet little smiles at Jinki and compliments his work. There the pair of them were, wandering aimlessly through the art festival downtown, browsing the booths of tie dye, stained glass, and watercolor art, avoiding the little kid areas, and shrugging at each other and deciding to leave early, when Taemin caught sight of a _true_ work of art and stopped so suddenly that Jonghyun walked right into him.

His cousin had needed an extra volunteer for his facepainting booth, Jinki had told them, and they just so happened to show up right in time to be the last customers of his shift. And Jonghyun was only thinking that their trip downtown wasn’t a complete waste of time because at least they got sno cones.

“You're really skilled with your hands,” Taemin tells Jinki, leaving just a hint of inflection in his voice to show that he absolutely means that in a less than innocent way. Jonghyun smirks and opens his mouth to agree with Taemin and tell Jinki that he definitely knows what to do with his fingers, but before he can get the words out, Jinki tsks.

“I said smile pretty, not smile sexy,” he chides. “You messed up my angle.” Taemin snickers and Jonghyun almost pouts before he remembers that that would only mess Jinki up even more.

“It’s really hard to be flirty and careful at the same time,” he whines, trying to sound as pouty as possible even as he works his face back into his pretty smile. Jinki laughs softly and slips his thumb around to press just lightly against Jonghyun’s bottom lip. That pushes any negative thoughts out of Jonghyun’s mind for sure.

“Just another minute or two,” he says. “Then we can all walk around together and you can do… whatever you want with your sweet mouth.”

“Oh,” Jonghyun says. He knows that they’re in the middle of public at a cute, family-oriented art festival and neither of them have ever given Jinki more then quick pecks, but still. He’s never ready for when Jinki says sex things like that.

“There’s supposed to be some shitty cover band covering some less shitty songs in half an hour a few streets over,” Taemin says. He wiggles the little pamphlet he picked up earlier with a questioning look between the pair of them.

“Sounds great,” Jonghyun says quickly, before he can think too much on the things he wants to do to Jinki with his sweet mouth. Jinki grins like he knows that Jonghyun is imagining them anyway and dabs more pink paint onto his brush.


End file.
